Edison woman pleads guilty in multimillion-dollar computer tech support scam
NEWARK - An Edison woman has pleaded guilty in federal court for her role in an international computer tech support scam that targeted more than 20,000 victims, many of whom were elderly, in the United States and Canada, according to U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger.
The scam generated more than $10 million in proceeds, Sellinger said.
Meghna Kumar, 50, of Edison, pleaded guilty by videoconference before Judge Michael Hammer to a charge of engaging in monetary transactions from unlawful activity.
Five other people have been indicted in connection with the scam - Gagan Lamba, 41, and Harshad Madaan, 34, both of New Delhi, India; Jayant Bhatia, 33, of Ontario, Canada, and Vikash Gupta, 33, of Faridabad, India, are all charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, and violations of wire fraud and computer fraud.
Lamba, Madaan, Bhatia, and a fifth defendant, Kulwinder Singh, 34, of Richmond Hill, N.Y. are also charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering, and engaging in monetary transactions derived from unlawful activity.
Authorities in India arrested Madaan on Dec. 14, and Gupta on Dec. 15 on local charges for their involvement in the tech support scheme. Bhatia was arrested by Canadian authorities and Singh was arrested at his home in New York. Lamba remains at large.
According to court documents, from 2012 through November 2022, Kumar and the others were members of a ring that ran a computer technical support fraud scheme in the United States, India, and Canada. The scheme targeted victims across the United States and Canada, including New Jersey, many of whom were elderly, Sellinger said.
The goal of the scheme was to trick victims into believing that their personal computers were infected with a virus or malware and then convince them pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for phony computer repair services, according to Sellinger.
The fraud ring caused fraudulent pop-up windows to appear on victims’ personal computers. The pop-ups were designed, at times, to “freeze” the victims’ computers, which prevented them from using or accessing files on their computers, court papers say.
The pop-ups also falsely claimed that the victims’ computers were infected with a virus or otherwise compromised. The victims were directed to call a telephone number to receive technical support.
Sometimes the pop-ups warned victims to not shut down their computers. The pop-ups also included, without authorization, the names of legitimate technology and antivirus companies.
In reality, the pop-ups were a hoax, designed to trick the victims into believing that their computers were infected with viruses that did not actually exist, court papers say..
Victims who called the technical support phone numbers were connected to one or more call centers in India.
Fraud ring members at the call centers falsely repeated that the victims’ computers were infected with viruses and offered to fix them for a fee.
The fraud ring members would then request permission to remotely access the victims’ computers, according to court papers.
Once granted access, fraud ring members would, at times, download and run a freely available ad blocker tool, advise the victim that the “issue” had been resolved, and then leave a text file on the computer with payment instructions.
Victims were instructed to pay amounts ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars by electronically scanning checks made payable to one of several shell companies set up by the fraud ring or sending physical checks via FedEx to addresses maintained by Singh and Kumar in New Jersey.
The fraud ring often contacted some victims again to offer additional services or lengthier service agreements that required victims to pay even more money, Sellinger said.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Edison woman pleads guilty in multimillion-dollar computer tech support scam
